Autumn's hot tickets: 100 things to see and do
September 1
THEATRE Sleepless
Jay McGuiness and Kimberley Walsh star in the first major indoor show since lockdown: a new musical based on the 1993 romcom Sleepless in Seattle, about a grieving husband and a female admirer, unhappily engaged, who is smitten after hearing him on a radio phone-in. Troubadour Wembley Park, London HA9 (sleeplessthemusical.com), until Sept 27
COMEDY Bill Bailey
The mad professor of musical comedy has told The Telegraph that he has been working on skits inspired by “the sounds of lockdown”. Hear the fruits of his labours at this outdoor arena gig. Virgin Money Unity Arena, Newcastle (virginmoneyunityarena.com)
CLASSICAL BBC Proms
The last two weeks of Proms are live-streamed and offer some top-level artists including Sir Simon Rattle (tomorrow), Mitsuko Uchida, Anoushka Shankar and – on the last night – stunning South African soprano Golda Schultz. bbc.co.uk/proms, until Sept 12
THEATRE c-o-n-t-a-c-t
This outdoor performance uses smartphone technology to enter the mind of a woman who meets a stranger who is seemingly able to hear her thoughts. Various London locations (contactshow.co.uk), until Oct 10
September 3
THEATRE Three Kings
Andrew Scott performs a new live-streamed play by Stephen Beresford; he stars as Patrick, a man haunted by his absent father and the challenge he set him as a child. Matthew Warchus directs. Old Vic, London SE1 (oldvictheatre.com), until Sept 5
COMEDY Sara & Steen
Interactive, improvised comedy, broadcast from a garden shed, with irrepressible stand-up Sara Pascoe and Australian improv star Steen Raskopoulos riffing on viewers’ suggestions. sohotheatre.com
POP Van Morrison
An open-air gig from the Belfast music legend. Morrison formed his first skiffle band in 1957 aged 12, went solo in 1967 and has released 43 albums. So he’s not about to let a little thing like a pandemic stop him now. Virgin Money Unity Arena, Newcastle (virginmoneyunityarena.com)
September 4
FILM Les Misérables
Not Victor Hugo again, but Ladj Ly’s blistering, Oscar-nominated French drama about police violence in present-day Paris – a treatment of urban tensions that could hardly feel timelier.
OPERA Peter Grimes
A new recording of Britten’s enthralling opera, with Stuart Skelton in the title role of a tormented fisherman. Chandos
POP Marc Bolan
Producer Hal Willner was lost to Covid-19 in April. This covers album, AngelHeaded Hipster, was his final project, an all-star tribute to the mercurial glam pixie Marc Bolan. The songs are spectacularly and addictively nuts, reimagined by Nick Cave, U2 and Elton John. BMG
THEATRE Theatr Clwyd
A clutch of intriguing, small-scale outdoor events includes Orpheus, a spoken-word rummage through Greek myth, and a new comedy, English, about “power dynamics” between English and Welsh. Theatre Clwyd, Mold (theatrclwyd.com), Sept 4 until Sept 27
THEATRE Pop-Up Palladium
A series of “virtual puppet theatre” shows (on Zoom). The first features Ronnie Le Drew, who had a hand in The Muppet Christmas Carol and here gives us some quality time with Zippy from Rainbow. popuppalladium.com, and Sept 18
September 5
CLASSICAL James McVinnie
Be immersed in the achingly hip post-minimalist sound-world of Nico Muhly, plus music by Philip Glass, played by pianist James McVinnie in a Peckham car park. Bold Tendencies, London SE15 (boldtendencies.com)
September 7
THEATRE Talking Heads
Alan Bennett monologues (as seen recently on TV), performed live in pairs, with a staggered schedule of openings and a cast including Imelda Staunton and Kristin Scott Thomas. London SE1 (bridgetheatre.co.uk), until Oct 31
September 8
THEATRE Pippin
Stephen Schwartz’s Tony-winning 1972 musical about a young medieval prince gets an al fresco revival with a cast of just six, led by Ryan Anderson. The Eagle, London SE11 (pippin musical.co.uk), until Sept 27
September 10
THEATRE Zippos Circus
A glorious daredevil return for British circus, which encourages everyone watching it to reacquire their zest for life. Hampstead Heath, London NW5 (zippos.co.uk), until Sept 15
BOOKS Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain
The brilliant author of Restoration delivers an ingenious, expansive tale set in the 1860s about a young woman in Bath with healing hands, an eccentric English philanthropist on the island of Borneo, and how their fates intertwine. Chatto and Windus
September 11
POP Doves
The Manchester trio made four acclaimed albums of moodily atmospheric space rock between 2000 and 2009, before falling silent. Now they return, 11 years later, with The Universal Want, another bruising epic of psychedelic melancholy. Virgin EMI
September 12
OPERA Fidelio
A semi-staged production of Beethoven’s great hymn to liberty, with Katherine Broderick as Leonore and Toby Spence as Florestan. Garsington Opera at Wormsley, near Princes Risborough (garsingtonopera.org), in rep until Sept 20
September 13
CLASSICAL Christian Gerhaher
The Wigmore Hall is blazing a trail for live classical music with an 80-concert series for small audiences, launching with the peerless German baritone Christian Gerhaher. Wigmore Hall, London W1 (wigmore-hall.org.uk)
September 14
COMEDY Russell Brand
Three years on from his last tour, the lounge-lizard turned unlikely self-help guru returns for a night of al fresco comedy. Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London NW1 (openairtheatre.com)
September 15
TV The Third Day
Jude Law and Naomie Harris star in a surreal seven-part series from writer Dennis Kelly (Utopia) that follows Sam (Law), as he arrives on an isolated island off the British coast. It will be split into three segments, with two sets of three episodes each airing weekly. The middle episode, however, will be a “live theatrical event”, broadcast in real time and in one continuous take, created by the immersive theatre company Punchdrunk. Sky Atlantic
BOOKS Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Clarke’s debut novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004), has sold more than four million copies, been adapted for TV and described by Neil Gaiman as “the finest work of English fantasy written in the past 70 years”. Her follow-up, 16 years in the writing, about a madman in a strange house, is a literary event. Bloomsbury
TV The Singapore Grip
ITV’s next big period drama, adapted from J G Farrell’s novel, stars Luke Treadaway, David Morrissey and Charles Dance and follows a wealthy and powerful British family living in 1940s Singapore as it comes under occupation by Japan. ITV, date TBC
September 16
FILM The King’s Man
Ahead of a third Kingsman film, this 1900s-set period prequel to Matthew Vaughn’s violently patriotic spy comedies puts Ralph Fiennes up front as a fiery T E Lawrence – aka the Duke of Oxford.
TV Spitting Image
It’s hard to imagine how satire can beat real life these days, but Spitting Image is being revived, after 24 years off the air, to make a decent fist of it. It will see modern figures such as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Kanye West, the Duke of York, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson recreated as grotesque puppets. Britbox, date TBC
ART Don McCullin
Another chance to catch the Tate’s popular 2019 retrospective of the British war photographer, with more than 250 photographs, all printed by McCullin in his own darkroom. Tate Liverpool (tate.org.uk), until May 9
FILM The Devil All the Time
Adapting a savage literary thriller, Antonio Campos embroils Tom Holland in a southern Gothic maelstrom, with Robert Pattinson as a vicious priest.
TV Industry
The cut-throat world of investment banking is the setting for this new drama series. Informer’s Nabhaan Rizwan and Deep State’s David Jonsson are graduates competing for jobs at a top firm, in the wake of the 2008 financial crash. BBC Two, date TBC
September 17
BOOKS Just Like You by Nick Hornby
The author of High Fidelity and About a Boy has lately been more prominent as a screenwriter (Brooklyn; Love, Nina). Now he returns with his first novel in six years: the tale of a London mother who falls in love with a butcher. Viking
September 19
OPERA La bohème
A drive-in version of Puccini’s weepie directed by PJ Harris, with alternating casts. Natalya Romaniw and David Butt Philip sing the opening performance as Mimi and Rodolfo; Martyn Brabbins conducts. Alexandra Palace, London N22 (eno.org), until Sept 27
September 20
OPERA A Feast in the Time of Plague
A new opera based on a play by Pushkin, by composer Alex Woolf and librettist David Pountney, streamed online and performed live before an invited audience. Simon Keenlyside stars. Grange Park Opera at West Horsley Place, near Woking (grangeparkopera.co.uk), date TBC
September 21
ART Alfredo Jaar
A new area of Yorkshire Sculpture Park is opened up to visitors for the first time, with Jaar’s metal cages and cells – evoking humanitarian trauma – scattered through a young woodland. Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield (ysp.org.uk)
September 22
THEATRE Romantics Anonymous
Emma Rice’s delightful romantic musical based on the 2010 French-Belgian film Les émotifs Anonymes – about a shy woman who can make chocolate to die for and the bashful owner of an ailing chocolate shop – is being revived and streamed live. wisechildrendigital.com, until Sept 26
September 23
COMEDY Dylan Moran
Ireland’s greatest living comic brings his unique brand of poetic grumbling to the Greenwich Comedy Festival (running until Sept 27), where the superb line-up also includes Bill Bailey, Nina Conti, Dara O’Briain and Nish Kumar. National Maritime Museum, London SE10 (greenwichcomedyfestival.co.uk)
September 24
ART Tantra
Drawing on extraordinary objects from India, Nepal, Tibet and Japan, this show examines the philosophy that has sparked waves of revolution, from its sixth-century transformation of Hinduism and Buddhism, to the Indian fight for independence and the rise of 1960s counterculture. British Museum, London WC1 (britishmuseum.org), until Jan 24
BOOKS Inside Story by Martin Amis
Amis’s first novel since his controversial Holocaust romance The Zone of Interest (2014) is a surprising foray into autofiction, telling the story of the people who made him: his father Kingsley, Saul Bellow, Philip Larkin, Iris Murdoch and, above all, his closest friend Christopher Hitchens. Jonathan Cape
ART Refugees
Through more than 80 photographs and objects, this exhibition explores a century of refugee experiences, from Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews and the Kindertransport, to the Calais Jungle and the treacherous Mediterranean crossings. Imperial War Museum, London SE1 (iwm.org.uk), until May 24
September 25
POP Idles
The rowdy quintet pioneered a spoken-word punk style that has gripped Britain’s grassroots live scene over the past couple of years. On their passionate third album Ultra Mona they scale their incendiary sound up to stadium levels. Partisan
FILM Six Minutes to Midnight
Eddie Izzard co-wrote and stars in this tense home-front drama, alongside Judi Dench, as a finishing-school teacher in 1939 who realises his students include daughters of the Nazi elite.
POP The Pretty Things
Veteran British rock singer Phil May died in May, aged 75, following a cycling accident. His cult rock band, the Pretty Things, had only recently retired after 55 years of wild electric music and suspect commercial choices. But May and guitarist Dick Taylor recorded had a final acoustic album, Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood, which stands as an elegiac tribute to a lamented if often underappreciated talent. Madasafish
September 26
ART Grace Before Jones
In 1979, Grace Jones had her face moulded into multiple ultra-realist masks. Inspired by that, this show, “part fan-fiction, part-biography”, looks at the pop star’s many incarnations, from “disco queen to dub cyborg”. Nottingham Contemporary (nottinghamcontemporary.org), until Jan 3
September 30
FILM The Red Shoes
A film of Matthew Bourne’s enchanting danced realisation of the classic Powell and Pressburger movie, with Adam Cooper as the impresario obsessed with an idealistic young ballerina (Ashley Shaw).
October 1
ART Sir John Soane’s Museum
The delightful rabbit warren that is the Regency architect’s house, built on intricate levels and filled with whatever took his fancy, finally reopens to visitors. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London WC2 (soane.org)
TV Small Axe
Oscar-winning filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) is set to make his TV debut with this hard-hitting anthology series set in London’s West Indian community between the 1960s and 1980s. Naturally, an impressive cast comes with him, including Star Wars’s John Boyega, Black Panther’s Letitia Wright, and Alex Jennings (The Crown). BBC One, date TBC
BOOKS The Fire of Joy by Clive James
The late critic, poet and polymath James, in the final months of his life, compiled this pick of his “roughly 80 poems to get by heart and say aloud”, with the hope of encouraging us all to declaim – an urge, he wrote, which is found in “even the most shy young people”. Picador
THEATRE The Last Five Years
A welcome return for this Covid-suspended production of Jason Robert Brown’s delightful 2001 chamber musical about a pair of New Yorkers whose five-year love affair is charted both forwards and backwards in time. Southwark Playhouse, London SE1 (southwarkplayhouse.co.uk), until Oct 31
BOOKS Tom Stoppard by Hermione Lee
An bewitching proposition: one of Britain’s finest literary biographers tackles one of its finest playwrights, tracing his progress from the child refugee Tomá? Straussler, fleeing the Nazis in Czechoslovakia in 1937, to what he calls his “charmed life” as Tom Stoppard, grateful Englishman. Faber
TV Roadkill
Playwright David Hare tackles the world of conservative politics in his new thriller. Hugh Laurie stars as a self-made, forceful and charismatic politician who, as revelations about his personal and private life begin to emerge, shows little remorse. However, his enemies are uncomfortably close to home, and determined to bring him down. BBC One, date TBC
THEATRE The Great Gatsby
London’s longest-running immersive show returns, -- re-framed as a 1920s art deco “masquerade ball” (face masks required), hosted by F Scott Fitzgerald’s rich and enigmatic party-thrower. Immersive LDN, London W1K (immersivegatsby.com), until Jan 31
October 2
POP Matt Berninger
American alternative rock heroes the National kept busy in lockdown. While band mate Aaron Dessner was collaborating with Taylor Swift, poetic frontman Matt Berninger has been creating his own solo debut album, Serpentine Prison, which features contributions from the rest of the National. The downbeat ambience of twisted melancholy suits Berninger’s fragile voice. Produced by Motown legend Booker T Jones of Booker T & the MG’s. Concord
FILM Wonder Woman 1984
After the First World War derring-do of Wonder Woman (2017), Gal Gadot is spirited to 1984, to combat new foes including Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah. Expect a killer synth-pop soundtrack.
POP Bon Jovi
Former pretty-boy, Springsteen-lite rocker Jon Bon Jovi has matured into a grey-haired icon of socially conscious Americana. His band’s 15th album, 2020, was primed for release before lockdown. During postponement they recorded two new songs, Covid anthem Do What You Can and Black Lives Matter tribute American Reckoning. Island
October 3
ART Artemisia
This delayed blockbuster show of Artemisia Gentileschi’s tense, violent 17th-century paintings tries to free her from the label of “rape victim” and show that she was one of the greatest visual storytellers of her time. National Gallery, London WC2 (nationalgallery.org), until Jan 24
October 6
ART The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
With any luck, it will be an Indian summer for the Royal Academy as the annual show opens its doors for a calmer, Covid-friendly version. Royal Academy, London W1 (royalacademy.org.uk), until Jan 3
October 7
ART Sin
Blurring the boundaries between religious and secular art, this stimulating exhibition looks at sin across the centuries, from Bruegel and Velázquez to Andy Warhol and Tracey Emin. National Gallery, London WC2 (nationalgallery.org.uk), until Jan 3
October 9
FILM Death on the Nile
After clearing up that whole Orient Express palaver, Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot has a more ingenious murder to solve. The cast includes Annette Bening, Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer.
POP Travis
It sounds like frontman Fran Healy has been through the emotional wars on 10 Songs, the ninth album from Scottish Britpop favourites Travis. This thoughtful, sensitive set of heartbreak and recovery is full of perfectly crafted gems of jangly misery. Susanna Hoffs, of the Bangles, provides guest vocals on The Only Thing, crooning “You are the record in the record shop nobody wants to buy.” Hankies at the ready. BMG
TV Life
Good news for those missing Doctor Foster: this new drama from Mike Bartlett is its spin-off. There’s no Suranne Jones as Gemma Foster, alas, but Victoria Hamilton reprises her role as her neighbour Anna, now going by the name Belle and forging a new life in Manchester. The series follows the residents of a house divided into four flats – with Alison Steadman, Peter Davison, Rachael Stirling and Adrian Lester among the cast. BBC One, date TBC
FILM Connected
The Lego and Spider-verse boffins bring us an animated comedy about a nerdy family thrown for a loop when all the world’s electronic appliances rise up against us.
October 15
BOOKS Boris Johnson by Tom Bower
Expect the gloves to be off (and the accuracy to be questioned) in the latest from Britain’s favourite unauthorised biographer. Bower’s recent subjects include the Prince of Wales, Tony Blair, Jeremy Corbyn and Gordon Brown. William Collins
DANCE Raymonda
Tamara Rojo stages a production updated to the Crimean War of Petipa’s classic, from English National Ballet. Palace Theatre, Manchester (ballet.org.uk), until Oct 17; Milton Keynes Theatre, Oct 28-31
BOOKS Red Comet by Heather Clark
This biography of Sylvia Plath is the first to draw on the flurry of new material – in particular, 14 letters to her psychiatrist, plus fragments of Plath’s lost autobiographical novel Falcon Yard, discovered by Clark herself. Jonathan Cape
October 16
FILM Candyman
Dare you say his name five times? Writer-producer Jordan Peele takes us back to Chicago’s housing projects, now gentrified, to revisit Clive Barker’s hook-handed horror bogeyman for a sequel-cum-reboot.
POP Katie Melua
The former Mike Batt protégé has matured into a singer-songwriter of languorous sensuality, melodious luxury and emotional depth. Completed during lockdown, her eighth album is entitled Album No 8 just to avoid confusion. It may be her best. BMG
October 17
ART Living with Art
A delightfully intimate show of 30 prints and drawings, by artists ranging from Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse to Lucian Freud, Bridget Riley and David Hockney, all once owned by the Evening Standard film critic Alexander Walker. British Museum, London WC1 (britishmuseum.org), until Feb 9 2022
October 19
THEATRE Shakespeare’s Botanicals
Event and wedding florist Mig Kimpton aims to “explore Shakespeare’s passion for all things floral” in “an evening of floral fragrance and theatrical frolics” – as part of the theatre and performance strand at the Canterbury Festival, which runs from October 17 to 31, and elsewhere features a talk by physicist Jim Al-Khalili and a circus-dance piece about male friendship, Bromance. Great Hall, Kent College, Canterbury (canterburyfestival.co.uk)
October 21
FILM Rebecca
Ben Wheatley takes a wild risk – it’s hard to top Hitchcock – by wending back up the driveway to Manderley, for a reimagining of Daphne du Maurier’s novel with Lily James, Armie Hammer and Kristin Scott Thomas in the three main roles.
October 22
ART Arctic
How do you live in a land of ice? From 28,000-year-old mammoth ivory jewellery to modern snow mobiles, this show tells the Arctic’s human story. British Museum, London WC1 (britishmuseum.org), until Feb 21
TV The Sister
There are supernatural undertones to this new four-part suspense thriller from Luther’s Neil Cross. Russell Tovey stars as a man haunted by a terrible secret – which is made worse by the arrival of a figure from his past (played by Bertie Carvel). ITV, date TBC
DANCE Lazuli Sky
A new work by Will Tuckett, set to music by John Adams, performed before a live audience by Birmingham Royal Ballet, a company now under the direction of Carlos Acosta. Birmingham Repertory Theatre (brb.org.uk), until Oct 24
October 23
FILM Saint Maud
Rose Glass’s eerie debut follows a hospice nurse (Morfydd Clark) trying to save the soul of a dying patient (Jennifer Ehle) and fearing in the process that she’s become demonically possessed.
CLASSICAL Brecon Baroque
Rachel Podger, Britain’s great Baroque violinist, takes her annual festival online. Her Brecon Baroque Orchestra play a new arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and Podger herself plays an all-Bach solo programme. breconbaroquefestival.com, until Oct 25
FILM The Secret Garden
The durable children’s classic springs to life on screen for a fourth time – the first of the CGI era – with a Jack Thorne script and those gloomy guardian roles in the hands of Julie Walters and Colin Firth.
THEATRE The Mousetrap
Agatha Christie’s famous whodunnit – the longest running show in the world, suspended because of Covid-19 – looks set to be the first show back in the West End. St Martin’s, London WC2 (the-mousetrap.co.uk)
TV Des
Expect a lot of morbid curiosity in this new true-crime drama series depicting the arrest of one of Britain’s most prolific serial killers, Dennis Nilsen, who murdered at least 12 young men between 1978 and 1983. David Tennant stars as Nilsen, with Daniel Mays as DCI Peter Jay and Jason Watkins as Nilsen’s biographer Brian Masters. ITV, date TBC
October 24
ART Ray Harryhausen
A centenary retrospective of the special effects pioneer whose stop-motion creations in films such as Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans expanded cinema’s capacity for spectacle and magic. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (nationalgalleries.org), until Sept 5 2021
October 26
TV The Undoing
Fans of the Big Little Lies brand of intrigue in big houses should enjoy this new psychological drama series from its writer David E Kelly (and directed by The Night Manager’s Susanne Bier). Nicole Kidman stars as Grace Frazer, a therapist and one half of a New York power couple. But when her oncologist husband Jonathan (Hugh Grant) disappears, he leaves a chain of tragedies in his wake. Sky Atlantic
October 28
ART Turner’s Modern World
Well, yes, it’s another Turner exhibition, but this one reunites paintings from across the world to portray Turner as man of progress: radical in his politics and in his enthusiasm for newfangled steamboats and trains. Tate Britain, London SW1 (tate.org.uk), until March 7
TV Us
Writer David Nicholls follows up Patrick Melrose, his Bafta-winning Edward St Aubyn adaptation, with this adaptation of his own 2014 novel. Tom Hollander and Saskia Reeves star as a couple whose marriage disintegrates just as they’re about to go on a family holiday country-hopping through Europe. BBC One, date TBC
FILM Black Widow
A long-promised spin-off for Scarlett Johansson’s Marvel heroine, the KGB super-spy Natasha Romanoff, finally lands, with Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz and Ray Winstone variously backing and blocking her.
October 30
THEATRE Rent
Luke Sheppard – who directed West End hit musical & Juliet – revives Jonathan Larson’s Tony-winning musical of 1996, loosely based on La bohème, about a group of struggling East Village artists living in the shadow of Aids. Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester (hopemilltheatre.co.uk), until Dec 13
TV Honour
The police investigation into the real-life so-called “honour killing” of 20-year-old Banaz Mahmod in 2006 is the focus of this two-part drama written by Gwyneth Hughes. Keeley Hawes stars as Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode, the officer who was given the Queen’s Police Medal for her investigation. ITV, date TBC
FILM Relic
In a dingy childhood home, a grandmother, mother and daughter must confront a festering evil – and the ageing process – in this intricately crafted indie horror from Australia, led by a pitch-perfect Emily Mortimer.
THEATRE Death of England: Delroy
The National reopens with Roy Williams’s spin-off to the monologue that was running when the theatres closed. This time Giles Terera, who won an Olivier for his performance in Hamilton, plays a black man arrested on the way to hospital who starts to “confront his relationship with Britain”. National’s Olivier Theatre, London SE1 (nationaltheatre.org.uk), date TBC
October 31
THEATRE What A Carve Up!
Jonathan Coe’s hit 1994 satirical novel about Britain under Thatcher – reflecting the state of the nation through a murder mystery centring on a wealthy and unpleasant family called the Winshaws – gets an online theatrical outing. Tamara Harvey directs. barntheatre.org.uk, until Nov 29
November 1
FILM Mank
David Fincher directs his father’s script about the tussles between Oscar-winning screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and Orson Welles (Tom Burke) over the process of making Citizen Kane. Date TBC
November 5
ART Zanele Muholi
In more than 260 photographs, a career retrospective of Muholi, who since the early 2000s has been documenting South Africa’s black lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex communities. Tate Modern, London SE1 (tate.org.uk), until March 7
TV His Dark Materials
Production of the second series of this adaptation of Philip Pullman’s young adult fantasy novels just about survived the pandemic unscathed to arrive on our screens without delay (though one James McAvoy stand-alone episode reportedly had to be scrapped). Expect even grander setpieces, and much more Andrew Scott. BBC One, date TBC
BOOKS Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe
The author of savage satires such as What a Carve Up! and The Rotters’ Club returns with a surprisingly tender coming-of-age story about a Greek woman who gets tangled up with the Hollywood director Billy Wilder. Viking
November 6
FILM The Duke
Jim Broadbent stars, alongside Helen Mirren, as bus driver Kempton Bunton, who in 1961 held the government to ransom over welfare – by stealing a Goya portrait from the National Gallery.
November 7
CLASSICAL Aurora Orchestra
That reliably surprising bunch of free spirits the Aurora Orchestra plays Anna Meredith’s massively energetic take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, alongside Mozart’s Coronation Piano Concerto performed by Louis Schwizgebel. Kings Place, London N1 (kingsplace.co.uk)
November 10
BOOKS Dearly by Margaret Atwood
The author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments was, of course, a poet before she was a novelist, and her first collection in more than a decade is awaited with the fever of a bestseller. Chatto and Windus
November 12
FILM No Time to Die
At long, long last, Daniel Craig’s 007 returns (perhaps for the final time) to save the box office, locking horns with arch-enemy Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) and new villain Safin (Rami Malek).
November 15
TV The Crown
The fourth series of The Crown sees the arrival of Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin) and Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson). Olivia Colman returns for her second and last time as the Queen, who must preside over the UK’s first female prime minister, the Falklands War and the wedding of Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor). Netflix
November 18
JAZZ John Zorn’s Masada
John Zorn has dragged traditional Jewish music into a startling alliance with avant-garde experimentation and jazz with his epic Masada project. In what promise to be two blazing gigs, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra perform selections in new arrangements sanctioned by the composer. Café Oto, London E8 (cafeoto.co.uk), and Nov 19
November 20
FILM Deep Water
At 79, director Adrian Lyne returns with his first film since 2002’s Unfaithful. Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas play sexy mind games to stave off divorce in this erotic thriller, derived from Patricia Highsmith.
November 21
ART Bags!
This light-hearted show embraces everything from flights of couture fancy to the 16th-century embroidered purse that held Elizabeth I’s Great Seal, as well as Winston Churchill’s battered red leather 1920s dispatch box. V&A, London SW7 (vam.ac.uk), until Sept 12 2021
ART Memphis
When the Memphis Group showed its first collection of pop-kitsch-deco furniture at Milan’s Salone del Mobile in 1981, it caused a sensation. This show brings together 150 of the design collective’s works. MK Gallery, Milton Keynes (mkgallery.org), until April 24
November 27
FILM Soul
Having gone into lockdown with Onward, Pixar emerge from it with Soul. Jamie Foxx voices the soul of a jazz musician who takes leave of his own body in a supernatural mishap, and Tina Fey is a cynical trapped spirit.
Contributors: Dominic Cavendish, Rupert Christiansen, Tristram Fane Saunders, Catherine Gee, Ivan Hewett, Neil McCormick, Iona McLaren, Tim Robey
